The Containment Policy of the United States, 1945-1954
The Containment Policy of the United States, 1945-1954
The applications of the Containment policy through the Truman Doctrine, Marshall Plan, NATO, and Point Four can be seen with in the Czech Coup, Berlin Blockade, the fall of China to communism, and the Korean War. However, results were mixed as the west had setbacks in Czechoslovakia and china. But, there were some victories in Japan and Korea. The Korean War was actually an ongoing battle between the USSR and the west, one of communism. The Koreans had split, the north moving to communism while the south was resisting. The north eventually ended up becoming aggressive and attacking the south, them the south called for US aid which was met, but ultimately called a stalemate. Meanwhile both the was and peace talks were going on Eisenhower fulfilled his campaign goals and vowed to end the Korean war. Ultimately, a non-solution was accepted leaving the Koreans separated at the 38th parallel, which still holds today.
The Containment Policy of the United States, 1945-1954
The development of the containment policy started because of the fear of communism spreading. Russia was determined to protect her communist state and created buffer countries/states that supported communism which terrified the U.N. because they fear this was a way of communism slowly conquering the world. This fear was confirmed by Kennan Telegram, a telegraph from US government official George Kennan, that warned there could be no permanent peace with the Soviet Union and that freedom in Europe would be compromised unless strong western alliances were formed. Kennan then was appointed Head of State Department Planning Staff, a group which advised on foreign policy. The group created the Containment policy. The containment policy was a compromise between internationalist desire for friendship with the Soviet Union and the anti-communists desire to rollback communism to Moscow.
The Containment Policy of the United States, 1945-1954
With containing communism, the policies main goal, the US tried to "hold the line" on soviet expansion. Kennan believe the socialism would eventually destroy the USSR. Thus, the Cold War began. Containment first began by stopping communism from entering more of Europe. The US implemented programs to help other nations that were suffering from the war. The Truman doctrine, Marshall Plan, NATO, and Point Four were all programs that allowed for assistance to nations that were suffering from the war but were also resisting communism. The US believed that European recovery from the war was essentials to keeping communism from spreading. The Marshall Plan had a similar plan by set up by the Soviet Union, called the Molotov Plan, which provided aide to their sympathizing states. It seemed that much of the area of Europe and surrounding areas were being fought over.
